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Well I’ve had a wonderful time here at BGG.con. I wanted to note some of my plays, some of my happenings, and wrap up the con.

I glossed over my goals for the convention the last post. But mainly, in general, I wanted to play a little less werewolf, actually go to sleep at decent hours, so that I enjoyed the games I played more during the day (And actually played more games too).

WEDNESDAY
Arrival on Wednesday evening. I spent more time chatting and greeting old friends than playing games. Finally managed to play a couple of games of Werewolf, before turning in at around midnight. Had to get up early to go to registration the next day.

THURSDAY
After Registration I played Castle Panic. I’d been wanting to try this for a while. It was a pretty good game, definitely a light game, very random. We didn’t have any trouble beating the game though. I’m only luke warm on it right now, I think there are better coop games out there, but I would play it again.

After that, I hooked up with some friends I had went to dinner with the night we arrived. They were about to play Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas and asked if I wanted to join. This one was a thinky brain burner puzzle type game where you moved your monks over an abyss to try to collect your books, not a bad game, but I don’t think it will ever be in the collection.

Since I’m a horse racing fan, I wanted to try Long Shot, so I went over to the Z-man area to give that a shot. I liked it a lot. I may end up picking it up. It’s random for sure, and not a lot going on, but it’s fun, and handles lots of players.

After that, got into a game of Dungeon Lords, it was the only Essen game I was interested in trying at the Con, I had a lot of fun with this one, this will never be a gateway game though. But I really like the theme, and the mechanics fit pretty well.

After wondering a bit, The friends I had hooked up with earlier wanted to play Goa, so I did. Always love this game, though it was a high scoring game, and I ended up getting creamed despite scoring a pretty nice 38 points.

Then I found TG and he taught me the game Campaign Manager 2008, this is a quick and very clever little two player game, that plays quite fast, and is interesting. Not sure how much variety there will be, but when you start playing the full game, I think it will get many descent plays. I played Obama, and seemed to draw the cards I needed whenever I needed them, but squeaked out a very close victory.

I ended the night with a little bit of Werewolf, seriously, just a little bit, only one game.

FRIDAY
Started off the morning with Amun-Re with five friends. Great game, Always like to play that one. Had another good time with it, and it always seems to go over well.

Went from Amun-Re to teaching Campaign Manager to CL. She seemed to enjoy it as well. I played McCain this time, and only managed about 220 Votes before CL and Obama sowed up the election.

After this, CO wanted to teach me Clash of the Gladiators, I had never heard of the game before. Though it doesn’t have the best reputation on the Geek, it is a pretty fun little game, not sure I ever need to own it, but I probably wouldn’t turn down a game or two.

Found someone to play Daytona 500 with me and KF too, I got some good cards, and drafted well, and managed to win it despite a bad third race, ended up with 1.4 mil or so.

Then it was time for the Poker Tournament. Last year, (I know you can go back and read my BGG.con report from last year to verify) I had wanted to get out of the Poker Tournament as quickly as possible, because in 2006, I had spent till midnight in there, in the tournament, and finished 11th, just before the final table. Well, with taking things a little more easy, I felt better going into this tournament, and managed to ride that feeling all the way to a ninth place finish this year, finishing just shortly after midnight. Since ninth also happens to be the final table, I also won a very nice prize. Some Copag Cards. I just bought four decks of these a little over a month ago, but these cards are wonderful, and I was excited by this prize. Perhaps I’ll win those BGG Chips next year *sigh*

After Poker, I played 2 games of Werewolf and went to bed again. (Still doing great on the sleeping thing)

SATURDAY
I woke up early to set up for the flea market, had to get rid of some games, and wanted to scout out and see if there were any grails that I had to have, when I discovered one. I got the Hans im Gluck version of Tigris and Euphrates. I’ve wanted that version for years.

After the flea market me and friends played a little bit of Manila. This is a fun game, can get kind of loud, and I always have a great time playing it. With two people teaching rules, it kind of screwed up some things, but it still played fine.

I had to pause the con a bit now, because Ole Miss was playing LSU, so I went up to the room to watch that. All I’ll say about that one is, What a game!!!!

After that, I came downstairs to playing a game of Tichu with JM, CM, and a new friend named Adrian, I don’t know his last name, so I feel alright with putting his first name on here. But we called it a little bit early.

I started wandering again, when CO found me again and asked me to come by and play Battling Gladiators. All I can say is Wow, this was the hit of the Con!!! I know, it’s just a retheming of Battling Tops, but cheering on Brawlin’ Brutus is much more fun than cheering on your Green Top. It really got interesting when the cash started hitting the table. We were playing with the Albuquerque variant, at first, but quickly switched between the ‘F*** Dungeon Lords’ Variant, and finished the night playing the ‘F*** Dominion’ Variant.

I ended the night by completely failing at my goal of going to bed early, playing about 4 games of werewolf before finally crawling back to the room at 5am.

SUNDAY
Sunday, was mainly just walking around and saying bye to everyone. I was only there for about 30 min or so, before KF and I headed back.

It was a fun Con again. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able not to go, but it gets harder and harder every year to make it down to Dallas.

written by Chris \\ tags: BGG.con, Boardgames

So, the other day I realized that we are less than a month away from the start of BGG.con 2009. I can’t wait. This is my Essen (Which coincidentally, is going on right now).

Anyway, I need to start laying down some goals or plans. Still plenty of time to work on them, but I need to start thinking about it.

I hardly play new games anymore, and I rarely buy new games. It’s cons like these that are the only ways I can test some new stuff to see what I like and know whether or not I might want to buy it, or whether it’s something I don’t think I need.

Of course, this conflicts with my goal the last couple of years of keeping my collection lean. I’ve done a good job this year. When I closed off 2008, I was listed as owning 262 Games or Expansions. (Dec 2007 it was 270) So as of this time right now, I have 268. So, unlike last year, I’ve actually went up, though some of the titles have been switched out. And my latest three were only due to really good deals, though Valerie has definitely been hounding me to get a copy of Shadows over Camelot for a long time.

I’ll hopefully come back around in the BGG.con flea market. I think I’m at the point where I’ll probably price a few things to move. In the past I’ve priced things at what I would consider reasonable prices, however, I would actually have to have been interested in the game to purchase them. That way, I felt like if it sold, it was worth it to me, but I didn’t really care if it sold or not at that price.

This year, There are at least a couple of games that I will be putting prices on that I would be tempted to purchase a game even without ever having played it. Simply because it’s there and the components in it have got to be worth more than the price on the box. I’m going to sweep the collection and try to find at least 20 games that I can take.

Enough about that. Let’s begin to outline my goals at BGG.con this year.

I’d like to play Dungeon Lords. I was a big fan of the PC Dungeon Keeper game a long time ago. Dungeon lords is a Boardgame redoing of that. I’d like to try it out and see if it’s any good. In fact, looking over the Essen list, it is the absolute only thing right now that interests me.

I’d like to play less Werewolf. In past years, it was my main goal to play as much werewolf as possible. I think I’ll still play one or two games a night, but I gotta get a little bit of sleep. I’ll be likely working on putting in new servers and workstations at work around the same time, so when I get back I’ll need to actually be functional, rather than zombie like.

That’s a good start. I’ve never actually sought out playing an essen game at BGG before. Usually I don’t care, and can wait till the next wave or MidsouthCon or something. Last year, I had played Chicago Express, but that’s it. Year before I didn’t play any of them (Agricola’s year). Year before that either I don’t think (Space Dealer’s year).

written by Chris \\ tags: BGG.con, Boardgames, Purge

I posted a geeklist with my BGG.con Experience. I don’t want to duplicate that here, so if you’re interested, head on over: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/36959

As far as pictures. I took the camera and snapped a few, I don’t have them loaded in yet. But I will soon, and I’ll attach them to this post.

written by Chris \\ tags: BGG.con, Boardgames, Play Statistics

There’s like nothing on the web about it… The only thing I know of is the name of the person in charge of it (who I’ve only met briefly despite the fact that he lives in the city where I went to college and try to get back to every chance I get to visit friends).

I realize he wants to keep out the riff raff, and keep the size to a minimum so that it doesn’t get out of hand and all. But dammit, there’s a game convention in Huntsville, AL this week, and I can’t go to it? It’s so close. I know a few of the people going there. I’m bored. I’m going through a serious gaming lull. My game group isn’t meeting very regularly for the time being. It’s just not fair. I need to get everything with my game group back on track.

I mean it’s late February and I’ve played like a total of maybe 20 games this year so far. What’s wrong with that?!? I realize that I’ve been sick, and I haven’t had a chance to get out to any Games-days or anything, and my one trip to Atlanta Gamefest was cut short by Bad Weather.

Anyway, regarding Gulf Games, twice a year there is a regional convention that moves around to various locations in the deep south, yet I am either missing the cut, or I am the embodiment of the “riff raff” that they are trying to keep out (If you know the answer to that one please don’t tell me ). Someday somebody that knows someone should get my name on that waiting list I keep hearing about.

Okay rant over now…

Seeing as how I’m not invited to Gulf Games. I guess I’ll have to tide myself over in my own way until some of the mainstream regional conventions come around. I suppose it’s actually going to be a fairly busy year. Which is fun, and good. Lets take a look at what might be on my table in the coming months. Gaming Wise, I mean…

March 28-30 is Midsouthcon in Memphis, TN. (One of my favorites for the year. A true convention though, which may or may not turn off some of the people that are really only interested in boardgames).

May 2-4 is Tennessee Game Days in Nashville, TN. This one is a good one that RK in Nashville puts on, this will be the third year of it, and It was an absolute blast the first two years. It’s a bit smaller so has quite a nice family feel to it. And RK goes out of his way to make sure that everyone that comes is having a good time.

Geekway to the West June 6-8th in St. Louis, MO Looks like a fairly promising little fun time. I have not been to any of the other ones, but I’ve heard good things about it. Still 5 hours going to a city where I don’t really know anybody is a little daunting. Not sure I’ll make this one, but it definately looks interesting.

August 14-17 is Gamefest South in Chattanooga, TN. Since Atlanta Gamefest (a regional convention I’ve had the pleasure of hitting for the day a time or two) is only happening once this year, WB decided that he would also offer another regional convention in Late August in Chattanooga. This will be the very first one of this, but I expect it will be a fairly good turnout.

Sometime in September is Memphis Game Day in Memphis, TN. I have some very good friends that put this one on, and I like to help out and make the day better for everyone. Hopefully some of the kinks from last year get worked out to make this one a better con, and more value for the money.

And finally sometime in November is Boardgamegeek.con in Dallas, TX. I love this convention. In my opinion it is the premier Board gaming convention in the United States. It’s 4 days of nonstop gaming. Whatever you want to play. And I get to meet all these people that I hang out with whenever I have a spare moment or two. What more could you ask for?

I also know that someone (SD in Jackson, MS) has talked about starting up a Mississippi Local Regional Con as well. I’d be up for that, and willing to do whatever I can to help out and make that one a reality. I’d love to get more people from Oxford interested, but sometimes time and energy just aren’t on my side.

Oh well, till later.
Chris.

written by Chris \\ tags: BGG.con, Gamefest, Gulf Games, MidsouthCon, OSBG, Tennessee Game Days

Hopefully it will be over soon. It’s long, it’s hot. It’s really bumming me out. We’ve had a pretty crappy couple of months here at the Oxford Chapter of the Boothe family. It’s not just due to the heat, but that definitely adds to it. I won’t go into any of it here, because it’s depressing and not really something I would post in a public forum anyway.

I know there was a four day stretch where the air conditioner did not shut off at all. Maybe a time or two at night, but other than that, it was going full speed all the time. I am not looking forward to that August Bill.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to dad coming home in a couple of weeks. I know the girls are too. Because they have told me in so many words. It’s one of the things I enjoy most about coming home and seeing them shout my name and run over to give me a hug. It almost makes it worth going to work just to get to come home to that.

I’ve found out that I’m going to have to miss another HOME football game this year. I had already given up that I wouldn’t go to the LSU game just so that I could go to Boardgamegeek.con in Dallas (They really have to got to learn to start scheduling around the SEC Schedules). Anyway. I was cool with that. I hate missing any conference game. Especially when it’s against the Arch Rival.

But now I have learned that I will definitely miss the Alabama game as well. I have to go to a conference in Orlando, FL that week/weekend for work. I had considered coming in on a red-eye on Friday Night and skipping the last day of the conference, but it really is fairly important stuff that they are covering on the last day (for our ERP software) so I felt I really needed to be there.

Oh well. I have a funny feeling that I won’t really miss a bunch this season. But who knows, maybe they can make it up to me by letting me go to Atlanta.

I need to get Val to post with a team outlook this year. I have some preseason stuff for GARC that I will be posting on the Garc website sometime in the next day or two. It was kind of interesting to read.

Alright. Later all. I promise it won’t be quite so long before I make another post.

written by Chris \\ tags: BGG.con, Family, Football, GARC, Mississippi, Rifle, Valerie, Work